Client Spotlight: Atlanta Bookkeeping Solutions

Tennille Carter, owner of Atlanta Bookkeeping Solutions, and Grace Fricks, President and CEO of ACE.

“My passion is helping small businesses thrive, a commitment shown in every aspect of Atlanta Bookkeeping Solutions, LLC. We focus on a vital area of business management and growth: day-to-day record keeping. Most people don’t realize this daily practice is critical to business excellence,” says Tennille Carter proudly.

Tennille Carter grew up in New Orleans. With a knack for numbers and a take-charge, sociable personality, she dreamed of someday running her own business. When Hurricane Katrina devastated her hometown, she migrated with other evacuees to Atlanta, found a job as an accountant at an envelope company, and decided to stay put.

“I liked my job, but ever since I was in high school, I knew I wanted to be my own boss,” she said. “Entrepreneurs just have that different mindset – we’d rather not punch a clock! So I started planning.”

Her employer was supportive, allowing her to temporarily work part-time so she could use her spare time to start building a base of clients. In 2007, she launched Atlanta Bookkeeping Solutions, LLC, where the clients are primarily businesses.

With capital and business counseling from ACE, Carter developed a marketing strategy to lure bigger, more diverse clients and hired two staff members to help with data entry.

“Instead of just lending me the money and that’s it, ACE helped me with advisory services, which is part of their Capital, Coaching and Connections program” she says. “I learned so much at one of ACE’s workshops called ‘Planning for Prosperity.’ Those services really help the business grow instead of just getting by and staying at a certain plateau.” Tennille has been an ACE customer since 2010 and received the “ACE 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year” award for her consistency and expertise in helping metro-Atlanta businesses thrive. She also continues to grow and learn as a member of ACE’s High Performing Group of women entrepreneurs.

Through Tennille’s determination and the financial and educational support from ACE, Atlanta Bookkeeping Solutions (ABS) is currently in its 10th year of growth and has over 90 clients! ABS not only provides outstanding service to their clients but provides a large amount of financial, tax and software resource information to them on her website.